I sowed some courgette seeds this evening. Tuscany - mildew resistant. I hope they taste ok. The packed had a little detachable plant tag with the name and details printed on it

Also two types of peas - Kelvedon Wonder (some outside in a large pot, some on the windowsill, some in a propagator - just to compare! Will sow some in the raised bed when it's ready, too.) (in propagator - although I think one is supposed to sow these directly outside. Worth a try.) and Valido - also mildew resistant.

I have a feeling slugs could be my biggest enemy this year if all my disease resistant varieties of things live up to their reputation. Already completely eaten a new lupin plant and they are attacking my psb like nobody's business.

They put back the delivery dates of the tomatoes and artichokes - I spent a lot of money in a garden centre in Kent today, but had found two £25 gardening vouchers while tidying up - dated 2010 which they accepted.

Beautiful flowers .I started sowing only a few weeks ago as it's not worth it before the end of March as there is not enough daylight and seedlings straggle and fail to thrive. Most everything is coming on nicely and my conservatory looks like a garden centre - I'm running out of surfaces As usual I've planted far too many types of tomatoes but I do like to grow different ones. I reckon I've just enough passatta & frozen toms from last year's crop to see me until this year's crop, ditto with broad & runner beans so hoping for similiar harvests this year. I decided not to grow fennel or chillies this year as I have loads in the freezer of both still.

I bought quite a lot of flowers, some veg (but not much - just a cucumber, 2 toms, and a butternut squash - v silly of me re the last) and other bits and bobs. Most exciting purchase was some edamame aka soya bean plants. Obviously an impulse buy so need to look up how to grow now. Hopefully they will not be a dud like growing wasabe etc in the uk.

I realized when I got home that these plants are all very small and not at all pot bound - upside, I don't need to do anything with quite a few of them yet.Outdoor sown peas now coming up nicely.

I prepared my raised bed so I can put some more in there, but may wait till I get back from Amsterdam.

I did quite a lot yesterday. I potted out 5 Joan J's that have been languishing in (large) pots for a year. I know it's a bit late, but if don't fruit this year, that's fine. I put a handful of fertilizer at the base of all my fruit bushes and dwarf fruit trees (hopefully not too much) potted on a blueberry and repotted a cranberry (silly purchase - husband's on this occasion) repotted the yuzu and finger lime (now outside), potted out another 15 or so small plants, and planted the potatoes in bags.

i have a whole heap of currant tomatoes coming up in a pot in the kitchen cos i realised i hadn't sown any the other day. they will need support as they try to prostrate theirselves and the bunches of tiny tomatoes end up laying on the floor, hidden underneath

i ordered some steel spiral tomato supports the other day, they were due to arrive next saturday - they arrived today, from germany - less than five days since i ordered them. they were also the best value ones i could find on the web - i'm well impressed. they also look good. i hope it's not style over content!

the spirals are the stake. maybe you have to tie then to the spiral initially, but then (in theory) the tomato plants are wound into the middle of the spiral as they grow so don't need tying - i'll let you know - when the tomatoes are big enough to plant out. (these aren't for the currant tomatoes which are a rampaging bush type.

Good lord, ltc. And I bet that's not one of each either!A bit cross with Suttons that they have despatched my toms when I had arranged for them to hold off until I get back from my holiday. If they don't arrive tomorrow, they are unlikely to survive until I get back. I can ask my cat sitters to open the boxes, but not much more than that. tbh I don't want to have to deal with them tomorrow either. I have been working 11 hour days for the last week, and although I am not prepared to do that tomorrow, I may have to work a bit late. I then need to pack, tidy, phone my mother etc. Relaxation would be nice too.

Deep breaths... rant over A bit stressed this evening. Lost network connection to work and not sure if I can get it back.

Herbidacious wrote:Good lord, ltc. And I bet that's not one of each either!A bit cross with Suttons that they have despatched my toms when I had arranged for them to hold off until I get back from my holiday. If they don't arrive tomorrow, they are unlikely to survive until I get back. I can ask my cat sitters to open the boxes, but not much more than that. tbh I don't want to have to deal with them tomorrow either. I have been working 11 hour days for the last week, and although I am not prepared to do that tomorrow, I may have to work a bit late. I then need to pack, tidy, phone my mother etc. Relaxation would be nice too.

Deep breaths... rant over A bit stressed this evening. Lost network connection to work and not sure if I can get it back.

I'd be firing off an email to them no wonder you are ranting. If they do arrive could your sittersunpack them and pop them somewhere cool like in the bath and water them.

And yes it is slightly more (just slightly) than 1 or 2 for the majority of them

i have spent the afternoon sieving stones from soil. i have mounds to do - it'll take me quite a while - i'll let you know when i've finished - maybe next year! bits of me ache.i've used some of the soil to plant out the first courgette in a big container, topped up the sacks of potatoes, and have three more massive truggs of soil and one of stones - the latter will be used to backfill a hedge or towards the base for a shed. four more courgette plants will go in when they're bigger and hardened off, along with some tomato plants - can't wait to try out the spirals.i have also seen that my hops have survived , along with a tiny one that i put in a little pot (on the off chance) last year but that didn't seem to do anything.the long beans are also up in the propagator and will be moved out soon but the next job is making a load more paper pots and potting up the currant tomatoes.

Bizarrely they turned up at work on Wednesday ltc. I am sure I asked for them to go to home. Anyway. I potted them all up after work, and put them in a tray in my unheated lean to. Hopefully they will be ok. They were looking a bit droopy this morning. I asked the cat people to water them.

Some more peas decided to come up. Just left them in the propagation without heat, after watering them. Not asked cat sitters to water them too, so we shall see...I noticed a chilli dud from last year seemed to be coming up too.

I admire your enthusiasm... and hard work re all those tomatoes that’s a lot of watering and feeding, or do you have an irrigation system?

I shall need to disinfect my quad grows after last year’s blight. (Yes, I know. I should have done it last year.)

I’ve not check on my potatoes since I planted them, but it was only Sunday.

I must say I am tempted by the spirals, scullion. I usually end up using 4 canes per plant. I take it they work in pots. ( on iPad so can’t click link without losing WF.)

Fingers crossed your baby plants do ok.No, I've no irrigation system but I don't mind looking after them. Re staking I use 3 canes interwoven with twine, looks like a "cats cradle and a centre cane in the middle that I tie the main stem to.

Quick possibly foolish question: I have had a delivery of some mangetout plug plant. They are in modules that are joined together, two plants to a module, and about 15 modules and they are all tangled up! Should I separate them all which will involved breaking some of their tendrils? I think I know the answer but thought I would double check.bit cross because they arrived while I was away, and were very dried out (compost like dust) but seem to be alive!Goodness knows why I ordered plants and not seeds but... well I did, apparently. (Some time ago.)

Looking forward to a stroll down the garden tonight to see what's happeNing, or not!

Yes, separate them ... snip the tangled tendrils with a pair of nail scissors ... it won't do any harm, they'll grow plenty more, and snipping them rather than tugging or trying to untangle them will do less damage to the plants.

Just found my mange tout peas peaking through the soil in the veg patch, ditto the chard, beetroot and radishes

i have some more rainbow chard to plant out and four baby globe artichokes to pot on - along with rather a lot of currant tomatoes and some sweet potato slips. i've taken the yard long beans from the propagator (could've, should've taken them out a few days ago) and will start hardening them off tomorrow.yesterday's digging and planting has not been discovered by cats - yet.

you could do a successional sowing of more peas to get a later crop, after your plug plant ones have finished.

My dwarf normal peas in the trough are about an inch (?) tall now. The indoor sown ones about two inches and looking healthy, I think. The normal sized ones, also sown indoors, are coming up at last. I need to sow some in the raised bed next, but may stagger sowings as you suggest, Scullion.

Not decided quite what's going where yet. I have my soya beans too! Not inspected the plants I bought the weekend before last but had not yet potted out yet. Roll on home time (And not just for that reason... ) Shall I do broad beans? French beans? (Will probably buy plants at this stage.) Need to do some research. i am rather behind with things. Can't remember what I did when last year.

I have rainbow chard left over from last year. Tough as old boots, now? Should it stay or should it go...?!

don't bother with broad beans now, they would be very likely to get blackfly. they should have been sown at the back end of last year or early this year. french beans will catch up fine if you start them off indoors (don't soak first, they don't like it). as for the chard, if you can't eat it pull it up and sow a new line - or eat it and sow a new line.

I grew them with summer savoury last two years and no black fly. I would buy plants if I did d code to grow them. But probably won’t bother anyway. Will see. I have some summer psb coming. May put that where the chard is. Tbh I wasn’t overly impressed by it as a veg when it was young. I may try a bit to see if it’s tough before I pull it though. Quick foray down the garden indicated that the rhubarb is getting slugged... I assume. Lots of holes in the leaves. Will look it up. Didn’t put mangetout out last night as v windy and cold. And I am utterly exhausted. I shall reassess gardening plans at the weekend. This tiredness will continue until I am able to have a good rest which won’t happen until then.

scullion wrote:don't bother with broad beans now, they would be very likely to get blackfly.

I sewed mine a couple of weeks ago and they're doing fine. Did the same last year. I grow pot marigolds in the same bed so whether that makes a difference? I know they're supposed to keep greenfly and blackfly away but was never sure if it was a myth or not.

I never start my broad beans that early as they get frozen, drowned or slugged or all three. Sowed a batch indoors just after Easter and will plant them out mid May. I'll then sow batches again indoors monthly for a couple of months. Black fly doesn't seem to cause too many problems the later ones do get a bit but I still usually get a good crop. The black fly always seem to prefer the nasturiums as every year a couple of these seem to get attacked.

I think I may have over done the tomato plant ordering. Just realized I have 12 on order from January plus another 11... I take comfort from you ltc wondering whether to order another quadgrow though. I have four of them. They are a bit cumbersome.

Herbidacious wrote:I think I may have over done the tomato plant ordering. Just realized I have 12 on order from January plus another 11... I take comfort from you ltc wondering whether to order another quadgrow though. I have four of them. They are a bit cumbersome.

The watering aspect daunts me, especially when on holiday. What do you do then? I don't think I can really ask my cat sitters to water 10 tomato plants. I am not sure how many plants I shall have now. I am afraid to count. But not as many as you ltc I guess I could try and give some away.

I am determined that this year I will only have 6 or 9 tomato plants instead of between 20 and 30 as usual ... and this year I'm going to plant them against the south facing fence in the veg patch rather than keep them in pots. A few years ago I grew some of an ox-heart variety (Anna Russian) directly planted in the ground, so this year we've kept some space for them ... hopefully watering will be a little less of an issue this way.

Herbidacious wrote:The watering aspect daunts me, especially when on holiday. What do you do then? I don't think I can really ask my cat sitters to water 10 tomato plants. I am not sure how many plants I shall have now. I am afraid to count. But not as many as you ltc I guess I could try and give some away.

Depends on how long you are away for but a large water bottle or similiar with the bottom cut off and the uncapped top wodged into the pot and then filled with water works well. If you popped a couple in each pot that would hold a fair amount of water. Would your sitters maybe not mind topiing this up if they only had to do it one or two times?

suffs - no chance of growing tom plants outside here and getting any ripe fruit even though my garden is sheltered and south-facing. I love all the different types of toms so don't mind having loads of different plants. I like to try and get enough to eats loads during the summer and make enough passatta to last until the following year. Last year I also froze a load whole and they have been fab roasted throughout the winter. I don't think I could be disciplined enough to grow only 9 or 10 plants The one thing I have cut back on is the number of courgette plants I grow, just 6 plants, as now there is just me too many means they don't get used. Again the short growing season and being in tubs means I don't get a massive crop, last year 6 plants yielded just the right amount so I'm hoping it's the same again this season,

Herbidacious wrote:The first time I grew them I had three plants Like the number and size of vehicles required to move house, the number seems to grow almost exponentially each time. Almost. But thankfully not quite

the first time I moved house (left home) I had a rucksack and two holdalls......

First sowing of peas and beans (broad, runner and french) planted out today. Liberal application of (wildlife safe) slug pellets applied so fingers crossed. I'll sow a second batch tomorrow and get them going indoors again. I have very little success growing from seed in situ, they either don't appear at all or get slugged when small

I too have sown peas and mangetout, and French beans and some other beans (not sure what...) Some mangetout (two types) were in the raised bed. Everything else was in modules. Sowing peas in situ worked quite well last year. But last year was not a very sluggy year. I shall put some neamtodes down tomorrow too. Also cucamelons, borage, tromboncini. I think that's it. I have a few James Wong things I might try sowing tomorrow. Some of my seed is a bit old so we shall see...

I've been very brave and planted two courgettes out in the veg patch ... they're under a cloche and I'm hoping they'll be ok there as it's two fewer plants to take to DDs on Thursday for her to look after while we're in Cornwall.

Not really ... we used nematodes the other year and that's kept the worst of the little grey/black be$$ars away ... we still have quite a few of the big Red Slugs Arion rufus and the Leopard Slugs Limax maximus but they don't do much damage and as they prey on keel slugs I'm happy to leave them to get on with it.

It's the combined possibility of a cold wet snap and/or a hot dry one that worries me ... but we have to let our babies cope out in the big wide world some time ... especially if we're going to go away on holiday in May

Peas and beans seem to be doing ok outside but a few of the flower plants I planted last week seem to have suffered a bit from Friday's unexpected wet/stormy/cold weather, hopefully most will recover. Tomato plants in the conservatory are mainly needing moved to a bigger pot, my job for the next few days I think.

Herbi, curling leaves can be a sign of root problems or wind damage. Sorry that's not much help but if possible it could be worth inspecting the roots for grubs.

Has anyone ever tried or grown "New Zealand spinach"? Apparently it grows like a vine but you eat the leaves not the fruit. The leaves need cooking but taste like spinach. My friends brought seeds back from NZ and are going to give me one of the plants they have started for my green house. Apparently they are ideal for small households as you can just pick what you need and it won't bolt.